...heres a few pics i took to show how much nicer shavings are to use as a substrate. these are actually an aspen and poplar mix, that i get from a feed store out where i live BFE,illinois. they are bagged by a company called "buchannan". 4-5 bucks a bale, great price. when i get a mess i just stick the shop vac tube in and suck out the bad shavings...add another handful and you are done. i usually change all the shavings a few times a year to keep them fresh. the first pic is two bolivs burrowed under the shavings, and the next two pics show a gravid female hog who pushed out a nice spot to coil part of her body on over the heat pad,,,,then she formed a "trench" to lie the forward part of her body in. this behavior interested me so one day when she left this position i spread the shavings flat to see if it was a fluke how she formed it. again she formed the shavings into the same shape. you cant get this natural behavior with a newspaper substrate. thanks for looking, john yocum

[ Show Entire Thread ]